A few years ago, I reviewed Josh Malerman's 'Goblin', a collection of linked short stories that took place in a single location, the sort of place to which the weird gravitates and, over time, a peculiar mythology builds. I adored the core idea behind that book, though I found the stories themselves underwhelming. It's not a new idea, especially as it has roots in the real locations in which fantasy and horror writers over the past few centuries set fictional stories. Lovecraft famously infused his native New England with weirdness. Wellman brought it to Appalachia. Stephen King's Maine is a weirder take on its real version. Kyle Toucher, like Malerman, however, created Walpurgis County out of whole cloth and he succeeded here where Malerman largely failed.

That may be for a few reasons. While I believe Malerman wrote all his novelettes for a single book, this is a collection in the traditional sense, gathering a set of short stories and novellas written at different times, some for different publications. While he certainly revised some for this book, it's fair to say that folklore is an ever-growing thing that builds in fits and starts, so this seems to be a thoroughly appropriate way to go. 'Strange Acres' is the first story Toucher ever sold, though it's a peach. 'The House on Beltane Road' came next. Others, I presume, are brand new.

They're wildly different in many ways too, whether we're talking length or tone. Again, folklore is never uniform. Some stories might be snippets, passed down through the years. 'Flight 2320' and 'The Nightman's Last Shift' are merely five pages each, the latter in particular a glimpse at what could be a much larger story. Others might be substantial and told first-hand. Well, maybe second. The folk who lived it are probably dead, or maybe on the other side of the Shimmer in 1924, where they can't reach us. 'Life Returns' and 'Billy Beauchamp and the Monster Cartel' are novellas, one sixty-pages long and the other seventy.

And, while I think Malerman was writing a book, likely because he had a contract, so he did the job and moved on to another project, it feels like Toucher was pouring out a love letter to a place he's never visited but which has thrived in his head for a long, long time. There's no reason why 'Goblin' shouldn't get a sequel, but I'd be surprised if it ever did. I have absolutely no doubt that we'll see a lot more from Toucher with regards to Walpurgis County. However many other books he writes, he will likely be remembered for his sprawling series (mostly yet to be written) set here. Well, and his other careers. It's not like he hasn't made a serious impact in the music and film worlds too.

The stories are so different that it's next to impossible to pick out favourites, especially as they do bleed into each other.

The house in 'The House on Beltane Road', for instance, a present-day Hallowe'en tale, is the same house that's in 'This is a Greedy, Jealous House', an epistolary work compiled from select journal entries and correspondence in the Vanderbaum Archive, drifting back to 1874, and as serious and old-fashioned as that sounds. 'Strange Acres', the opener, introduces us not only to a Hallowe'en legend, Rusty Jack, but to the wannabe Insta goddess Beeley Ballantine, who's mentioned in 'The House on Beltane Road' and lands a return slot in 'Billy Beauchamp and the Monster Cartel'. Of course, that stars the same character as 'Billy Beauchamp, Discount Exorcist', while 'Flight 2320: Wire-Witch' is naturally a sequel to 'Flight 2320'.

I like 'Strange Acres' a lot, because it does so much in a relatively short space. It's not a scant five-pager—it runs twenty-six pages—but it manages most of the things that book does in a couple of hundred. It's a cheesy story, a street vendor telling Beeley Ballantine about Rusty Jack, guardian of the fields, a Hallowe'en legend she doesn't care about. However, it only seems cheesy because it's playing with a cheesy format. It's also subverting that format through some tasty twists, and introducing us to our first crucial location in Walpurgis County, Copperhead Farms.

There's a lot to tell about Copperhead Farms and not all of it's told in this story, because it doesn't have to be, but we're given plenty of teasers and a strong example of its substance. Other stories pick up the slack, both in this book and, no doubt, down the road in the next. So we hear about the snake cult that grew up there and witch hunts and hex symbols. We also learn about the Shimmer, because Beeley walks through it and finds herself in 1924 where Instagram isn't a thing. It's really cool stuff and it's the perfect scene setter.

I adore Billy Beauchamp. His first story here flows gloriously, even though it's a comedic piece that follows a Hallowe'en tall tale in 'Strange Acres' and a Lovecraftian cosmic horror yarn in 'Note to Sanderson'. I liked that it's told quickly and simply, in a mere fifteen pages, but he returns for a far more substantial piece to wrap up the collection. That particular story, 'Billy Beauchamp and the Monster Cartel', may well be my favourite here, even though its predecessor includes some joyous writing that I felt the need to read to myself aloud. It flows wonderfully.

But 'Flight 2320' is blisteringly dark, from its brutal first line onwards. 'Witchfyndre' is an ode to a different era that rings true. 'Our Last, Raving Days' needs to be filmed but maybe as animation, given that attempting to solve Shadowless mathematics does get pretty surreal. And how mad is the Mayor of Danielsburg, Howard Decatur, given they arrest him red-handed with the corpse of a woman wrapped in a shower curtain?

I do know what my least favourite piece could have been but turned out not to be. That's the other novella, 'Life Returns', because it was freaky but woefully incomplete, until I realised that it didn't end when I thought it did, another short short story, and was happily getting started as the other novella in the collection. The longer it went, the better it got, Uncle John, suitably batshit insane as a Renfield for the Machine under Walpurgis Peak, that's preserving what will pave the way for the Master, the Architect of Zero. Oh yes, this one fills in a lot of gaps in folklore floated in earlier stories.

As with any collection, the stories are varied in quality as much as anything else, but even a short, sweet and simple story like 'The Nightmare's Last Shift', inherently insubstantial, is worthy. It's a moment and only meant to be a moment but we can extrapolate it easily enough into something a lot more substantial.

I've read Kyle Toucher before, because Crystal Lake Publishing kindly sent me a copy of his novel, 'Live Wire' for review. I liked that, with reservations. I love this. It's everything 'Goblin' could and should have been and largely wasn't. Bring on the next volume of 'Medusa Psalms'! I'll tuck into it while I happily remain indoors to avoid the Winter Howl. In fact bring on the next couple, so they'll last me through the Dead Season.

Oh, and I guess I do have a negative. What's this book called? Is it just 'The Medusa Psalms', while 'Welcome to Walpurgis County' is a prominent tagline? Or is 'Welcome to Walpurgis County' the first in 'The Medusa Psalms' series? Or, of course, are we going full-on-Hollywood and combining a series with an episode for a rather unwieldy 'The Medusa Psalms: Welcome to Walpurgis County'? Answers on the back of a postcard to the usual PO Box, please. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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